WE ARE NOT UNDERSOLD BY ANY HOUSE IN QUINCY!| SAWYER & GRAVES. NORTH SIDE OF THE PUBLIC SQUARE, QUINCY, ILL. RESPECTFULLY ASK YOUR ATTENTION TO THE FOLLOWING ADVERTISEMENT: IN SOLICITING A CONTINUANCE OF THE LIBERAL PATRONAGE BESTOWED UPON THE LATE FIRM OF SAWYER & ADAMS, WE WOULD STATE THAT WE SHALL SELL THE FINEST FABRICS AND DRESS GOODS EQUALLY AS LOW AS RETAILED IN ST. LOUIS. THE ONE PRICE CASH SYSTEM IS THE PRINCIPLE UPON WHICH WE HAVE ACTED, AND UPON WHICH WE SHALL CONTINUE TO OPERATE. THE SILK DEPARTMENT IS NOW VERY COMPLETE.... FINE DRESS GOODS SUCH AS PLAID SILK POPLINS, MERINOS, PERSIAN TWILLS, THIBET AND COBURG CLOTHS, FANCY DE LAINES... SHAWLS, CLOAKING GOODS, EMBROIDERIES, LACES, COLLARS... CHOICE GROCERIES!!... BOUGHT FOR CASH EXCLUSIVELY; SUCH BEING THE CASE, WE SELL AT ST. LOUIS PRICES... REMEMBER, WE ARE NOT UNDERSOLD!| JAS. T. SAWER [sic], H.L. GRAVES, W.C. GRAVES... QUINCY, ILL., SEPT. 28, 1855

Quincy, IL: Sawyer & Graves, 1855. Folio broadside, 16.5" x 22". Printed using several different typesettings. Light crease from having been folded. Very Good.

This rare broadside survival was printed during the early commercial development of Quincy, a Mississippi River town which became a thriving rail and river transportation center and, by 1870, the second largest city in Illinois. The Graves brothers-- Henry Littleton [1832- c.1882] and Washington Clay [1834-?]-- were Kentuckians who became Illinois farmers before they were out of their teens. They established a partnership with James T. Sawyer [c.1818-?], a native Tennessean with a well-stocked mercantile business. Their establishment is noted in the directories of the era.
Sawyer later served as a director of the Quincy, Missouri Pacific Railroad. [THE RAILWAY AGE, VOLUME 11, NO. 9, MARCH 4, 1886, Page 118; Chapman Bros.: PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD OF ADAMS COUNTY, ILLINOIS. Pages 320-323]. (Inventory #: 31168)